Potato Dauphinoise - made with a Benriner

Although it is spring now it has been raining constantly for days in Melbourne. So last night I made a winter standby, potato dauphinoise. This is ultimate comfort food. Nigella Lawson has a lovely section on comfort food in her brilliant book Feast. She includes things like onion rings and mash. To me comfort food has to be creamy and eaten mostly with a spoon. And if that is in front of an open fridge door (Nigella and I have that in common) then so be it.

There are many many versions of this recipe so I lay no claims to originality here - in any event a truly original recipe is a rare thing these days. I always make enough to give to the children the next day. Even if you get the liquid amounts wrong, by which I mean having regard to the amount of potato because I never weigh my potatoes, it doesn't matter, you can just leave that behind in the baking dish.

Contrary to what you may think, this recipe is not the favourite food of a Dauphin (the title given the heir apparent to the throne of France between 1350 to 1781, which makes me think of sad little French boys drssed in gold embroidered finery) but rather derives from the region of dauphine in France near the Italian border, from where the recipe originates.

Pot Dauph (based on recipe from Nick Nairn, my favourite Scottish cook).

Ingredients
1.25 kilos potatoes (he suggests Maris Piper, I use Nicola). I don't know how many 1.25 kg is - I use about 4 large potatoes
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tsp of Maldon salt
300 ml thickened cream
300 ml milk
white pepper
half a cup of freshly grated parmesan

Method
Preheat oven to 140. Peel and slice potatoes very thinly. You should do this with a mandolin slicer.

(As an aside, I use the Japanese Benriner slicer, which I bought in Tasmania, of all places. I love this piece of equipment with a passion. I love its packaging, which you can see below slightly (happy Japanese housewife) and I love its efficacy, and I am kind of thrilled by the fact that any slip of the protector and you are destined for a quite nasty slicing accident).

Crush the garlic with the blade of a knife and mash it with 1/2 tsp of salt. Put the milk, cream, garlic and the rest of the salt in a large saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Add the potatoes and gently stir so they are covered with the milky mixture. Cook at medium simmer for about 15 minutes. You want the starch to have been released but not have the potatoes falling apart.

Put the whole contents of the pan into a buttered shallow ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with the grated parmesan and cook for about 45 minutes.

Note: I find the cooking times very variable. You want the dauphinoise to be browned on the top. There may still be liquid, you can ignore this. This dish can be left to cool and reheated in a slow oven. You can also use a scone cutter to cut out little circles and reheat gently. If you are into sculptural food this looks very nice.

Tweet

Ugly side wall - fixed in a day

We have two sides to our house. The pretty side with a deep garden bed, daphne and camellia plants, crab apples and jasmine.

And the side I call the Dark Side. Our bedroom looks out onto the dark side, and for years it has niggled at me. We have tried to grow plants in pots but nothing seems to take.

Last week I walked past that window and stopped and looked at the outside vista with great distaste. The fence was unpainted, the bamboo we had planted was completely 100% dead, and there was ficus and unmentionable climbing plants from the neighbours garden growing through cracks. All of a sudden I became almost angry. Why can't my view be like this? Neat and happy.

You know when all of a sudden what you have put up with for years is no longer remotely acceptable and must be changed NOW. That is how I felt.

So this is what I did. I went down to Paint Spot and bought a tin of paint in a colour called Lava Stone. Then I stopped into a fantastic shop called Perfect Pieces and bought some wrought iron hanging bits and pieces.

Then I put my son down for a nap and I threw the bamboo out, and with great enthusiasm stripped off all the ficus. Then I in a frenzied fashion painted the wooden fence. Then I hung up my hanging things.

And - snap crackle pop, this is the result. Just as my son woke up!

Not perfect but a massive improvement. Neat and reasonably peaceful. I confess, what you see in the pot is fake plants ('giant sage'!), something I said I would never have in my house. But after 7 years of trying to grow real plants, I was a little bit desperate.

If only I could fit all my activities neatly into nap time.

(Image (1) Martha Stewart)

Tweet

Monday Inspiration - Rapunzel Tower Houses in Melbourne

Being a boom time town built on the back of an enormous gold rush, by the 1880s Melbourne was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. And what do newly wealthy people do? They build large houses in the current style. So, there is an abundance of Victorian, Italianate and Queen Anne architecture dotted around the inner suburbs. And in many cases, these lovely houses have towers. That's right, real towers. How I love those towers. And I so rarely see anyone in them. Perhaps they are a difficult space to use for anything other than staring at the view.

It seems to me that apart from admiring the vista, towers are well suited for use as a reading room, craft room, study or a garden style room. Here is my mix and match:

This is Belmont in Hawthorn, built in 1898.

This is a large family home, so I feel I would want a grown up space to retreat to:

This is Uxbridge House dating from 1889. Built in an unusual Queen Anne style it has a tiny little two storey tower on the left.

Given its garden setting perhaps a little green study would be apt here.

This is Glucksberg in Hawthorn.

I can see a wooden pannelled study in here, with a slightly European feel in the patterned desk:

This house (Kinniel in Hawthorn) could have a light filled craft room in the Tower

with lots of storage for crafty bits and pieces:

This is Rupertswood in Sunbury dating from 1974. It is the homes of the Ashes (as in cricket) such a fascinating fact I didn't have time to find out what that meant.

It's a pretty serious house so I think there could be a pretty serious looking grey study for serious business.

For contrast, with a little flowery sitting space for the top of the tower:

This is Rosina in Moonee Ponds, built between 1850 and the 1890s hence the mish mash of architectural styles.

This tower looks quite large so I think you could have a light filled sitting room with some antique paintings scattered around.

And perhaps above that, a conservatory style area for reading:

This is Illawarra in Toorak. This has a quite amazing three storey tower, which you can see in town halls and post offices in Melbourne but rarely houses. The spaces are probably quite small, and perhaps to off set the heavy Italianate architecture something light and dreamy is called for:

First, a bedroom:

Next level up, a letter writing desk:

And then a bathroom. Don't ask me how you get the plumbing up there. That's the plumber's problem.

Here is Huntingtower in Hawthorn.

This has a touch of the Edgar Allan Poes about it so maybe a room for writing gothic novels would work:

think this is my favourite - Sarathon in Prahran built in 1880. The owners appear to have subdivided the land and there is now a very modern boxy structure in the front garden. It is an interesting contrast but affects the approach to this tower a little.

Given that I would be living here I think a ladylike desk for writing little bon mots and wrapping small gifts would be appropriate with lots of natural light:

There is a very run down Victorian house up the road from where I live. It has peeling white paint, a willow tree in the front garden and a single white Italianate tower perched on the roof. I have never seen it for sale and I picture a grey haired lady happily ensconced in there with her 10 cats. I hope it is one day bought and refurbished by someone who loves the tower.

And thank you to Dean Melbourne your architectural photographs are amazing. You can see all of them here.

(1) Walking Melbourne (2)(4)(6)(11) (18) Point Click Home (8) Country Living (9) Martha Stewart (12) and (19) Sandra Lane (14) Tim Evan Cook (15) House to Home (17) Marie Claire Maison (21) Homes and Gardens. All other houses photographed by Dean Melbourne.

Tweet

A flowery chair for the Duchess of Devonshire

For Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, aged 88, formerly Debo Mitford, chatelaine of Chatsworth since 1950, keeper of chickens, lover of dogs, grandmother to model Stella Tennant, sister to five famous sisters and one brother who died young, daughter of reasonably nutty aristocrat who whose idea of fun was calling gentleman callers 'swine' and a woman who, ahead of her time, was into organic food and home education, reader of no books (apparently), inveterately optimistic, warm and friendly lady, possibly the most normal of all Mitford sisters, here you are.

I have found you a flowery chair to sit in and rest for just a minute.
I do love those Mitfords. I can't help it, even though, as has been pointed out, they were all slightly creepy. Here is a poor quality photo of part of my Mitford book collection.

However the creepiness does not extend to the Duchess. She seems pretty normal to me. I have just finished reading 'In Tearing Haste' which is a touching collection of the letters between DD and Patrick Leigh Fermor, war hero, generally brave person and a gregarious kind man who loved to travel, visit with people and appreciates the Mediterranean way of life. He is a man who is interested in just about everything and it shows in his chatty vibrant letters.

This is an uplifiting book about people who enjoyed life and made the most of it, in spite or maybe because of the war horrors they lived through. Patrick Leigh Fermor was a hellenophile - he lived in Crete disguised as a shepherd in WWII, he kidnapped the commander in charge of Crete General Krieke and then ultimately moved to Greece and still lives there, aged 94 in his stone house.

These were people who had desperately close friendships, their letters are full of declarations of platonic love, compliments, thankyous for some little weekend away in a castle or cottage and 'do please join me in Paris's.

Here is the Duchess now:



And here she is in the 1950s.




Who knows why so many are entranced by those MItford girls. The beauty is part of it, although it is only Diana who was truly beautiful (you know when people talk about a 'great beauty' of the past and you look at a photo and think I don't really get that, tastes must have been different then? Well I think when you look at photos of Diana you can see that she was really beautiful in all senses of the word).




I have a theory. It is not just to do with beauty. For me at least I am entranced by these sisters because:

(1) By and large, they did what they wanted. That makes them very modern. Whilst we may not agree with their politics or actions, they were strong minded, pig headed, determined ladies, and I love that. For the Mitfords, doing what they wanted didn't involve staying out all night after a debutante ball in South Kensington in 1934. It involved striking up a friendship with Hitler for possible purpose of a radio station between Germany and the UK. Or eloping with one's cousin, not to Venice, no, but to Spain, to help out in the Spanish Civil War.

(2) they can all write. Whether it be a pithy thank you card, a long letter of recollection, a childhood memoir or a full blown book a la Nancy. Of course in those days, people got a lot of practice writing, a skill we have slowly lost since 1980.
I will finish with a letter the Duchess wrote in 2006 when UK Vogue shot her and Stella Tennant at Chatsworth for their 90th anniversary. Unfortunately I cannot find the photo. This is how the Duchess describes it:
'Stella came. We had to be together in a photo for Vogue's 90th birthday come Christmas. So one Mario Testino, famous photographer, came in a helicopter with a crew of helicopter with a crew of makeup, hairdresser, 'fashion editor' etc from London
I've got a really beautiful dress, grand evening, given me by Oscar de la Renta, so that was my kit. They bound Stella's legs, up to where they join her body, in tartan. A Union Jack flag hung from her waist and her top was what my father would have called meaningless...
We looked just like that Grandville drawing of a giraffe dancing with a little monkey. I was the monkey'.
Images (1) Cote Maison (4) wwd.com (5)(6) Style.com

Tweet

Oh for a Black Bibliotheque

I wrote here recently about my white library, which I truly love. I could almost go so far as to say it has Massively Improved my Life.

When we did the library we talked about joinery colour a lot. Magazines and interior decorators will tell you that white is 'crisp' and 'modern' and that timber finishes can be 'dated'. We ultimately decided on white because it went with the rest of the back of the house which is very modern.

But what about Black?

Black is a big deal in Melbourne. Other Australian cities often joke about Melbournians and our black clothes. Whilst we may not wear black all our lives, we all go through phases where we wear it a lot, and it is of course largely suited to the weather (except for those 45 degree celsius days and then it is not so great). I clearly remember my phase of wearing black skirt, black boots, black T-shirt with the words 'Destroy Disorientate Disorder' printed on it. That phase went for about, oh, 5 or so years.

Indeed, a tailored black suit worn to work is par for the course in Melbourne. Noone bats an eyelid. However when a friend of mine moved from Melbourne to Sydney for work and wore her best black suit on the first day, to a tee, everyone she saw that day said (Cue: sad expression) 'Oh do you have a funeral to go to?'.

So, bearing that in mind, I do wonder why we never even considered black for our library. I have been looking at my shelves and wonder- what if they were black?

It looks fantastic I think, particularly when set against some crisp white:

Images (1) Point Click Home (2) ,(5), (6) Living Etc (3) Cote Maison (4) Marie Claire Maison

Tweet

Spring Things at the Prahran Market

Sometimes when the sun is shining, the air is crisp and there is just a gentle perfumed breeze through my hair, the little things take on more importance.

And when I am busy, it is those tiny things which I really really appreciate. The very (sadly) rare opportunity to go for a run around the Tan, or to sit still for more than about one minute with a latte and a newspaper. And I put in that category a leisurely stroll (as opposed to a military style operation complete with pincer movements, knapsack of provisions and a stern 'don't mess with me' expression) around my local market in Prahran.

I took some photos of some of beautiful spring food there when I visited yesterday.

I hope you don't mind but I have not included photos of the bits of the market I am not so keen on (pigeons sitting in the roof trusses, wandering troubadour singing out of tune songs, the Bob the Builder tractor ride which my son wants to sit on incessantly, the ATMs which charge $2 for withdrawals and the loudspeaker announcements for lost children).

I probably haven't mentioned before now that I am an Apple Addict. I would say I have eaten an apple a day since I was nine years old.

No 1 favourite apple is the Pink Lady:

No 2 is the Sundowner, these come from the hills outside Melbourne:

And No 3 (fallen from no 1 in recent years) is the Granny Smith:

The other items which caught my eye were:

Fresh green peppercorns:

Local asparagus at a bargain price:

My favourite way to eat these is to boil until par cooked and then put in shallow dish sprinkled with butter and grated parmagiano and bake in hot oven for 10 minutes:

And broad beans (fava beans in the US) - I usually peel, boil, peel again then mash with a fork with lots of olive oil, parmagiano and salt and eat on bruschetta:

And finally, look at the wonderful purple with cream slashes of these kohlrabi. I have never cooked them - I wonder what they are like?



Images (1) media.nowpublic/images (2) - (8) Jane

Tweet